Reading about the JournalSpace disaster got me thinking again about various disaster recovery solutions I've used over the years for my home systems. None of them really worked as well as I would have liked. My question is, "What practical disaster recovery options are available for home users?"

For home users, cost is a key factor, but ease of understanding and use by non-computer experts is a must. My 86 year old father, over 1,000 miles away, has put a lot of information into his system. He periodically makes DVD copies of selected files. However, it is too easy to miss some files that you "thought" were previously copied.

I have Apple's Time Machine running on one of my systems. It is a great backup solution (and would have saved JournalSpace if they had used it on their OS X systems), but the files are sitting on an external USB drive next to my iMac and would disappear in a fire along with the computer.

At the risk of side tracking the discussion; at work I was just told by my vendors that my LTO1 tape libraries are too old and are no longer supportable. I suspect my LTO3 library is next to drop off support. With over 40 terabytes of data to backup, I really don't have an acceptable off site storage solution. (The biggest issue here is lack of a "corporate approved" high speed link to a different site.)

Practical Solutions: What are they?

The Slashdot History posts scrolled off the front page so fast that I missed the first two. After tracking them down, I figured I should simply track them...

• A Brief History of Slashdot Part 1, Chips & Dips
• A Brief History of Slashdot Part 2, Explosions
• History of Slashdot Part 3- Going Corporate
• The History of Slashdot Part 4 - Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow
• Slashdot's Setup, Part 1- Hardware
• Subterranean Slashdot Email Blues

My current data storage at home is becoming tired. It's a four year old linux box, running some version of Fedora and doesn't really have all that much disk space by today's standards, so I am on the lookout for a replacement. However, nothing I've seen, that I can afford, makes me happy. What are you using at home to keep all you old stuff you just might want to look at someday?

1 - I don't want to deal with yet another tape device. I've lost track of the number of tape storage systems I've used, only to erase the tapes a couple of years after the system died of obsolescence. Multiple copies on disk, with some type of redundancy should be sufficient.

2 - I would like something whose OS can be easily upgraded, without having to cross my fingers while running a major update from one release to another. Not being plagued by ever worm or virus that hits the streets would be a plus. My current solution is a home brew raid system, running Fedora. It is non-standard enough that the Fedora 7 disk doesn't even register the existance of the OS disk.

3 - I would like something that can grow with the growth of disk drive capacity, without have to replace every drive in a raid array at the same time.

Any candidates?
 

That the Gulf Stream is responsible for Europe's mild winters is widely known and accepted. Richard Seager writes in American Scientist online that it is nothing more than the earth-science equivalent of an urban legend.

The Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) is warning its members that under U.S. law, government agents may seize and search a persons laptop computer, computer discs, and other electronic media when that person arrives in the U.S. from abroad or departs from the U.S for a foreign country. They claim that the law applies equally to U.S. passport holders and non-U.S. passport holders. This appears to be based on a survey of its membership, with no specific laws or court cases listed.